Has R.C. Sproul Gone Too Far ?
June 18, 2007
Listen and decide for yourself. I think R.C. Sproul has gone to far here.
The following audio is a 7 minute audio excerpt from R.C. Sproul’s teaching entitled “Who is Truth?“. It’s part of his series called a Blueprint for Thinking.
I suppose if you are not of the “Reformed Theology” perspective you are a Pharisee.
Download MP3 here.
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June 25th, 2007 at 9:48 am
I think R. C. has it right.
July 9th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
This is all so humiliating.
I’m having to type one handed because my jaw just dropped wide open listening to that, so I’m holding my jaw up off the keyboard right now.
As someone of Reformed faith I’m truly embarrassed and ashamed to have to hear a Reformed minister like R. C. Sproul accuse the Evangelical church of being “sick.” I used to have a lot more respect for the man than I have today. I’ll tell you what’s sick is Ligonier Ministries. Sick and corrupt and rotten to the core.
And that story about the “carnal Christian” who thought it was okay to take drugs? What about R. C.’s own grandson, Ryan Dick, who grew up in R. C.’s home and who still lives with R. C. and who’s a drunken fornicator? Oh, and let’s not forget that Ryan “Partyboy” Sproul-Dick is also on Ligonier’s payroll. His drinking binges are paid for by donor money.
R. C. you’ve really got a lot of nerve talking about Phariseeism. You need to get that beam out of your eye.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Sadly, Dr. Sproul IS correct.
December 20th, 2007 at 1:50 am
I agree 100% with RC.
December 22nd, 2007 at 12:39 am
I totally agree with RC, and I go to a Baptist church, not a Presbyterian church. The church does need to be reformed in theology. God is soverign.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I serve as a deacon in a Southern Baptist Church, (which is about as far from Reformed Theology as one can get), and yet, I must agree both from experience and God’s Word, that R.C. is 100% correct. I regret that fact but earnestly believe it. This sickness should not surprise us. Paul saw it in the early church and clearly warned of it for future generations. What makes us “immune” when even the NT churches were ill as well? I am terribly troubled that the church,generally speaking, is simply “immunizing” people against the Gospel rather than clearly and rightly dividing the Word and praying that the Holy Spirit will change hearts. I have lived for 40 years under the teaching that “walking an aisle” or “praying the prayer” or “gettin wet” regenerates a lost soul. I don’t know which I feel more- Anger or saddness.
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
We recently moved and spent time looking for a home church. My husband and I were saddened by how many churches we went to before we found one that actually congratated to worship God in the truth and supremecy of Scripture. For example we had to leave several churches for preaching out of a particular book instead of from the Word of God. It is entirely understandable to use refrences, but when your sermon is derived from another mans opinion instead of grounded in God’s Word than we need to reevaluate how we are worshipping.
Sproul is right on with this issue. Part of the problem is our culture is extremely spoiled and self sufficient and the church had neglected to protect and seperate herself. So, unfortunantly the evangelical church tends to (in general) look more like the world.
January 24th, 2008 at 12:43 am
RC is the man. I agree completely.
February 6th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I agree 100 per cent. I see this all around me, even in my extended family. Truth hurts…hope it causes some to refer back to the right standard of scripture to investigate the issue for themselves.
February 7th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
My wife and I have been on a 2 year journey studying, praying and trying to understand, we were involved in an evangelical denomination for many years. We have seen over an over folks give their lives to Christ (as we thought) via sinners prayer, Baptisms, ect. But we witnessed few changes and many of their lives kept imploding. We are sharing the Gospel to many, why only the few truly embrace and CHANGE. The same truths were told… Not saying we have to attain perfection- it is impossible- just that a heart HAS to change when truly taken over by God.
As R.C. boldly stated that it is the Reformed truth of God’s Soverignty and Grace that changes the heart and that changed ours when we first submitted to Him. As my wife and I have changed denomination, we reach out to our evangelical brothers and sisters and present these truths via scripture. Not to recruit but to open eyes to see the Soverignty of our Lord.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I don’t get what the problem is here. I just don’t see it. Can we agree that God is Soveriegn? I hope so. Can we agree the church is made up of sinners that blow it? So the church is always going to be sick until Christ comes, don’t you think? And we should rely on the scriptures and the Holy Spirit to help us to do God’s will in the meantime. Man, it is all so confusing sometimes. But I thank God for guys like RC who devote their entire lives, day after day, in helping people like me to understand the heart of God, the nature of God, the Truth with a capital T. Too far? To say that the church is sick? The Truth hurts sometimes.
March 1st, 2008 at 2:40 am
I agree with R C. I’ve been a Christian for about 20 years now and I know that I’m still sick. I would think that I’m not the only one and the Church for a large part is made up of people like me. I’m a sinner and at the same time a saint, totally living under the grace of God that I don’t deserve. I fail most when I decide to give only part of me to God, when I don’t see that God is my all and all and when I think that I’m so impressive and when I claim to have freedom and wisdom to do what I want. The moment that we lose sight that the only reason for us to exist is to glory God, we are in danger. It happens to me a lot. Walk humbly and look to God constantly is the only way to live.
March 1st, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I agree completely with Sproul. It is a scary and difficult thing to give yourself completely to Christ, but He did say that unless you lose your life you will not have life. There is no way to understand and experience true grace until you acknowledge God is sovereign and place yourself completely at His mercy.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:09 am
I find myself in full agreement with R.C. Sproul, the growing need for reformation will be opposed by the pelegian arguements of the disengaged
March 18th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
To the poster named “Trish” above:
Sproul correctly diagnoses the “sickness” of the evangelical Protestant movement , whatever his personal ethical failures (or those of his son-in-law and his grandson or other family members) . Someone can speak the truth in one area and still be in need of rebuke for something else . (I think we’ve all been there , right ? ) Ligonier may be going down the tubes because of mismanagement and nepotism , but when this message was recorded almost 14 years ago when the “Blueprint for Thinking” series was first released Sproul was right and the situation has continued to decline to this day.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I think that both R.C. Sproul and Trish are correct. Sproul is correct theologically, but as Trish is pointing out, Sproul hardly makes a credible spokesman for the Reformed church. His orthopraxy doesn’t line up with his orthodoxy. Like Trish says, Sproul has a plank in the eye. I too find Sproul’s longstanding antagonism of the Evangelical church hypocritical and therefore offensive. He’s prideful, speaking as though Reformed churches don’t commonly exhibit their own very serious problems, including a major problem with pride. I say this as a Reformed person myself who’s often found myself deeply offended by the degree of pride found in so many Reformed churches (my own included). Correct theology doesn’t always result in correct living that honors Jesus, and the major problems in Sproul’s own family are some of the best evidence I’ve ever seen to show (a real Eli’s sons situation) that Reformed people can just as easily be as messed up, or more messed up, as any Evangelical families. R.C. Sproul and his screwed up family hardly qualify him as the poster child of Reformed fathers. To me he’s just an embarrassment.
I don’t argue that many Evangelical churches have their problems, including holding to unbiblical doctrines, but given Sproul’s own terrible track record and the bad example of his own screwed up family (drunkenness, a duplicitous defrocked son, a defrauding son in law at Ligonier’s helm, etc.) Sproul is hardly in a position to be pointing the accusatory finger. Jesus condemned the hypocrisy of attempting to remove the speck from a brother’s eye while you have a plank in your own. Of what real value is Reformed theology to R.C. Sproul if it doesn’t convict him to conform his life to the image of Christ? From what I can see the only “value” Reformed theology is to R.C. is that he gets to make a very lucrative living off it.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:11 pm
RC Sproul is awesome and a humble servant of God. I think he has it right, and people just give him a hard time, because they are more apt to embrace a man-centered theology that wants to rob God of all of his glory.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
RC Sproul spoke honestly from the heart, he cried and lamented at the sad state of the of the visible church. We were in a hurry to evangelize, “save” souls, grow churches and ignore the truths in God’s Word. God’s Sovereignty and His ways and timing are ignored and considered irrelevant and no longer effective. We have ushered hurriedly in the “Ismaels” into the visible church with our fleshly methods and worldly wisdom. We trimmed down and watered down the messages from the pulpits to please the “Ismaels” and starve the “Isaacs”. We are now reaping what we have sow: Christianity “lite”.
“The Gospel is not a thing apart. It is not something independent of the prior revelation of God’s Law. It is not an announcement that God has relaxed His justice or lowered His standard of holiness. So far from that, when scripturally expounded the Gospel presents the clearest demonstration and the climacteric proof of the inexorableness of God’s justice and of His infinite abhorrence of sin.” AW Pink
“And do you imagine that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to worldlings and telling them that they “may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their personal Savior” while they are wedded to their idols and their hearts are still in love with sin? If I do so, I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel, insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. ” AW Pink
July 28th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
R.C. is right on the money. Sin will exist until the time in which All things will be made new and we are reunited with Jesus in the eternal kingdom of heaven. Anything short of this belief is taking away from the Supremacy of God in all things. We need Jesus because we are sinful and live in a world of sin. The sickness he refers to is borne of sin and has led and continues to lead people away in false beliefs and doctrines. It’s only going to get worse. We as Christians must hold tight to the promise of our Lord and King Jesus. He is the only way to promised land of no more sin.
September 6th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Just like most other Calvinists I know, I hear nothing but sheer arrogance. How dare Sproul or any other Reformist accuse Evangelical Christians of being carnal and not having any understanding what-so-ever of God’s sovereignty and grace just because they don’t adopt the false teaching of Calvinism.
I would agree that there is a large percentage of people who claim to be part of the Body of Christ who don’t understand and appreciate God’s sovereignty and grace and many of them probably are not really saved, but let’s not generalize. But to imply that one is in a unique class of the chosen few and therefore only they truly understand grace is nothing more than sinful pride.
Unless you want to take portions of Scripture out of context, as a pastor and teacher of the Bible I find nothing that supports such an absurd doctrine. The Bible clearly teaches that it’s not until a sinner fully understands his depravity, and repents before Almighty God, and receives God’s free gift of grace by faith through Jesus Christ that he is born again. That is NOT Calvinism, not election, or not predestination. That is humility. That is true grace!